Corporate Offices Around the World Are Throwing Money Out of the Window - Are You One of Them?

Malou Damgaard
|
February
19,
2019

Time is money. It’s almost a cliché, but it’s true. The question is, how much money is it? Large corporate offices around the world are throwing money right out of the window each day as their employees waste time trying to find the right meeting room or getting interrupted by others who ask for directions. It may not sound like a big problem, but I think you’ll be surprised to find out how much money this is actually costing companies.

The hidden cost of poor wayfinding

The old-fashioned office with rows of cubicles is dead. Employees no longer want to be tied to their desk from 9 am to 5 pm. They want less traditional offices with a wealth of options for common space, conference space, and chilling out space. They want a creative and motivating environment. To accommodate their needs, companies have replaced the sea of beige cubicles with wide-open space, fashionable Scandinavian furniture, and large, sunny windows.

Each creative new flourish can bring tremendous benefits to the productivity, motivation, and morale of employees. But re-defining how a modern office looks, committing to diverse spaces, and eschewing many of the traditional office functions can also create a significant amount of directional confusion.

It’s not only the diverse office layouts that make corporate offices hard to navigate. Many businesses share buildings and even floors with other companies while others have several offices in the same city.

Fifty percent of office workers report spending excessive time locating conference rooms due to wayfinding problems. The average office employee reportedly spends up to 30 minutes a day hunting for a room for their purposes. That means a company of 1,000 employees spends up to 130.500 hours a year searching for meeting rooms. That’s the equivalent of around 65 full-time positions or 2.6 million euros if the average salary is €20/hour. Far-fetched, perhaps, but the numbers add up and highlight the costs of poor wayfinding.

Frequent interruptions kills productivity

When people feel lost, they tend to ask for help. According to a study by University of California Irvine, office workers spend an average of 11 minutes on a project before they are interrupted. But it gets worse. Each time employees are interrupted it takes an average of 25 minutes to get back to the point they were at before the interruptions. So, office workers potentially waste 55 minutes each day searching for a room and trying to get back to work after an interruption. Not only is this expensive, but it also decreases workplace satisfaction.

I think you’ll agree with me when I say nothing kills productivity faster than frequent interruptions. Interruptions leave you with the feeling of not getting anywhere with your work, thus draining your energy and making your stress levels spike.

Add up the estimated costs of dissatisfied, frequently interrupted employees, who spend hours searching for meeting rooms, and it could be said that corporate office layouts are costing companies worldwide millions of euros each year.

The solution fits the palm of your hand

With an indoor navigation solution like MapsIndoors it’s possible to reduce both the time employees waste on searching for a specific room and the number of interruptions.

MapsIndoors puts searchable, interactive indoor maps into the hands of every employee and office guest. Users can pull up maps right on their smartphones to navigate through every floor of the office to find specific rooms, desks, or printers. By integrating the solution with other third-party systems, such as calendars or a room booking system, you can make it even easier for employees to plan and coordinate their day.

If you want to know more about what MapsIndoors can do for your office, take a look at out website or download our free eBook, "Everyone Hates Your Office".